Archive for October, 2010

Star Trek Re-Watch: “And The Children Shall Lead”

– October 28, 2010 8:00 amPosted in: TOS Re-Watch

“And The Children Shall Lead”
Written by Edward J. Lakso
Directed by Marvin Chomsky

Season 3, Episode 4
Production episode: 3×05
Original air date: October 11, 1968
Star date: 4842.6

Mission summary

Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy beam down to Triacus, an isolated Federation outpost. They find sprawled out on the ground each of the adult members of the exploration party. Most appear dead, but one of them moves: it’s Starnes, who looks like he had a very bad night. Shaking and sweating furiously, he fails to recognize Kirk, says something about “the enemy within,” and then promptly collapses on the ground dead. Hmm. Upon closer inspection one woman has a vial in her mouth–some kind of poison. All seem to have died by their own hands.

All except five young children, who rush out and demand that our heroes play games with them. Tommy, Mary, Steve, Ray, and Don rush to Kirk, link hands together, and dance around him while singing “Ring Around the Rosie.” Twice.

Captain Kirk thinks he may now understand why the adults shuffled off this mortal coil.

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Tags: babysitting, bad parenting, evil children, fully clothed man-wrestling, ghost of television costumes past, horrible horrible children, marauders, mind-control, space douches

Star Trek 2 Villain Rumors: It’s Probably Not General Zod

Eugene Myers

– October 26, 2010 2:20 pmPosted in: Uncategorized

As development ramps up on the untitled sequel to the 2009 Star Trek reboot film, plot and casting rumors are as inevitable as Vulcan ponn farr. J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Damon Lindelof are still working on the script, but people are already conjecturing about the possible storylines and characters we’ll see as early as June 2012.

The latest revelations, according to Trekmovie.com and Badass News, dangle the possibility of a classic Trek antagonist challenging the crew of the Enterprise. It seems many fans would happily go where we’ve gone before with a modern take on “Space Seed” and the return of a pre-wrathful Khan Noonien Singh. I think that would be a mistake given the iconic nature of Ricardo Montalban’s performance and the fact that the original Star Trek II has pretty big boots to fill. Come to think of it, “Space Seed” itself is a tough act to follow.

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Tags: big heads, illusions, parallel universes, rumors, space douches, star trek films, talosians, the cage, the squire of gothos, Vulcan sex

Star Trek Re-Watch: “The Paradise Syndrome”

Eugene Myers & Torie Atkinson

– October 21, 2010 8:00 amPosted in: TOS Re-Watch

“The Paradise Syndrome”
Written by Margaret Armen
Directed by Jud Taylor

Season 3, Episode 3
Production episode: 3×03
Original air date: October 4, 1968
Star date: 4842.6

Mission summary

Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy beam down into a nature documentary. The captain and doctor immediately fall in love with the rustic setting; despite astronomical odds, the planet is identical to Earth right down to the pine trees, honeysuckle, and metal obelisk in a clearing. No wait, that’s new. Its composition and the markings on the strange building are alien, but there’s no time to study it because a moon-sized asteroid is heading for the planet. They’re on a tight schedule if Enterprise is to have any chance of diverting it.

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Tags: amnesia, fridge stuffing, fully clothed man-wrestling, handwaving mumblemumble, mind meld, paradise, pregnancy, preservers, primitivism, rocks, shirtless Kirk, something racially awesome is about to happen, space samaritans

The First Duty

The Viewscreen

– October 21, 2010 6:00 amPosted in: Uncategorized

Since our launch two weeks ago, we’ve received a number of public and private inquiries about our reasons for moving our Star Trek Re-Watch to The Viewscreen. We probably should have addressed the topic earlier and we’re sorry for the confusion and concern that arose as a result.

We wish we could say it was because of a bold desire to strike out on our own, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. Just after we completed Season 2, we received a new blogger agreement from Tor.com. Without getting too specific, it asserted a view of our intellectual property that we weren’t comfortable with. We presented our concerns but alas, the new contract was non-negotiable, so we reluctantly chose to resign as bloggers.

The rights associated with our work are as important to us as the work itself. We decided to launch our own site and release all of our writing under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. Likewise, we’re using the open-source platform WordPress with the Arras theme, as designed and modified by Torie.

We always planned to finish the series we began over a year and a half ago. As for the continuation of the re-watch on Tor.com, we were as surprised as many of you were. It is of course their right to do so and we wish the new bloggers well.

To those of you who have found us here: thank you. This is now solely a labor of love. It means a great deal that so many of you enjoy our little project and we’re delighted to share it with you.

Star Trek Re-Watch: “The Enterprise Incident”

Torie Atkinson & Eugene Myers

– October 14, 2010 8:00 amPosted in: TOS Re-Watch

“The Enterprise Incident”
Written by D.C. Fontana
Directed by John Meredyth Lucas

Season 3, Episode 2
Production episode: 3×04
Original air date: September 27, 1968
Star date: 5431.4

Mission Summary:

On the bridge of Enterprise, Captain Kirk snaps at Chekov and Spock for no apparent reason. But it’s not just a case of the Mondays–Doctor McCoy explains that Kirk’s been short-tempered and (in scientific terms) acting like a total jackass to just about everyone onboard for days now. There’s no getting around it: Captain Kirk has come down with a severe case of douchebaggery.

Kirk turns to Sulu and orders him to change course.

KIRK: Come about to one eight five, mark three.
SULU: But Sir, that’ll lead us directly into the Romulan Neutral Zone.

Sulu, Chekov, Spock, and Uhura all look around at each other nervously. Mr. Scott and Uhura discuss very loudly that no order has come through from command to take this measure, and Kirk sharply instructs them to shut their pieholes.

But it’s too late. In the Neutral Zone, two–no, three–Klingon-designed Romulan ships appear from the ether, surrounding Enterprise.

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Tags: comfortable clothing, emotional Spock, emotional women, espionage, insanity, is it Halloween yet?, Kirk playing dress up, logic, loyalty, oh wow he called that a disguise, penis-waving around the Neutral Zone, romulans, spying, stop using sex as a weapon, teaching alien women how to love, vulcan death grip, Vulcan sex, women nearly being awesome, you call that a disguise?!

Star Trek Re-Watch: “Spock’s Brain”

Eugene Myers & Torie Atkinson

– October 7, 2010 10:00 pmPosted in: TOS Re-Watch

“Spock’s Brain”
Written by Lee Cronin
Directed by Marc Daniels

Season 3, Episode 1
Production episode: 3×06
Original air date: September 20, 1968
Star date: 5431.4

Mission summary

Enterprise is at red alert, everyone watching the viewscreen as a silver rocket approaches. No one answers their hails, and the technology and design is wholly alien. Engineer Scott is excited though: “I’ve never seen anything like her. And ion propulsion at that. They could teach us a thing or two.” But Captain Kirk is more interested in the woman beaming directly onto the Bridge, who seems to have left most of her outfit behind.

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Tags: boing, flimsy outfits, flimsy premises, gold lame hats, katra, pain, science!